Headlines
To the delight of conservatives, President Obama put Gen. David Petraeus in charge of Afghanistan after dismissing Gen. Stanley McChrystal over a few controversial remarks. Petraeus, widely credited with turning around the Iraq War, has strong support across party lines for assuming leadership in Afghanistan. Earlier this month, the Senate approved his nomination on a 95-2 vote.
Gen. James Mattis
Now, in a less publicized maneuver, President Obama has appointed Gen. James Mattis as the head of Central Command. (This was the role formerly occupied by Petraeus). Victor Davis Hanson commented that “Mattis is a proven battlefield commander, a sophisticated student of history, and unshakable in his nerve and purpose.”
However, the July 19 issue of The Weekly Standard probably best summarized Mattis in a short collection of quotes by the four-star general:
- Speaking to tribal leaders in Iraq: “I come in peace. I didn’t bring artillery. But I’m pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you f— with me, I’ll kill you all.”
- Convincing an Iraqi that the United States wouldn’t cut and run: “I said I am never going to leave. I told him I had found a little piece of property down on the Euphrates River and I was going to have a retirement home built there. I did that because I wanted to disabuse him of any sense that he could wait me out.”
- Advice to soldiers and Marines: “Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.” Also: “If I were to sum up what I’ve learned in 35 years of service, it’s improvise, improvise, improvise.” And: “You are part of the world’s most feared and trusted force. Engage your brain before you engage your weapon.” Similarly: “An untrained or uneducated Marine…deployed to the combat zone is a bigger threat to mission accomplishment…than the enemy.”
- Psychological counseling: “The first time you blow someone away is not an insignificant event.”
- And last but not least: “Marines don’t know how to spell the word defeat.”
Now if President Obama would put to rest his plans for a withdrawal timetable…
Neil Rosekrans is a founder and partner of StateBrief.com. He is a regular political commentator for the Arizona Law Channel and for NBC's Sunday Square Off. Neil earned his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and earned his MBA and Masters in Public Policy, with an emphasis in International Relations, from Pepperdine University.
Neil and his wife, Beth, live in Scottsdale, Arizona. 
